By Gabriela Baron
About 1.26 million Filipino women and girls induced abortion in 2020, according to a women’s health and rights group.
The Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN) said “far too many” of the procedure “took place in unsatisfactory conditions.”
This, as PINSAN renewed its calls for a safe and legal abortion.
“The continued denial of access to safe abortions is a clear disregard of women and girls’ fundamental rights including the rights to life, health, to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, and to be free from torture and ill-treatment which are guaranteed and protected by the Philippine Constitution and international human rights treaties that the Philipines is a party to,” PINSAN said.
“While clamor for more progressive abortion laws grows stronger, the highly sexist and backward views on the matter persist among our nation’s lawmakers, and is evidenced by the government’s inability to acknowledge the right to abortion as a fundamental right to health,” the group added.
Abortion is still illegal in the Philippines, however, the criminalization of abortion has not prevented abortion but instead made the procedure unsafe and deadly for over half a million each year who try to terminate their pregnancies, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Women who undergo abortion in the country may face up to six years in prison under the Revised Penal Code.
Meanwhile, physicians, midwives, and pharmacists performing abortions or dispensing abortifacients may have their licenses revoked if caught engaging in abortion-related activities. – cf